She's a Genius
by Eilwynn
Summary: "You know, if you keep doing it all, Aiko, you will eventually collapse from exhaustion." "Lies." Fem Ichigo full series rewrite. IchiHitsu / Ichigo x Toshiro. Part of the Do It Like A Dude series.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Notes: This is the Bleach part of a four-part anime fem series. I will be writing four fem stories at the same time - one for Naruto, one for Bleach, one for Fullmetal Alchemist, and one for Yu-Gi-Oh! All my fanfic writing resources will be devoted to this project. It sounds like a lot to take on, but don't worry. I have it all planned and scheduled out. Over the next few days, I will be uploading the first "introductory" chapter of each story.

What do I mean by "introductory?" I mean that any mangaka is, for their first chapter, allowed at least twice the number of pages a weekly chapter would usually have. So the first chapter of any manga is typically separated into two sections. In one section, the main character is somehow introduced. In the second section, the plot is somehow introduced. How long each section is depends on the mangaka.

So for each of these stories, I will be uploading the "character introduction" and "plot introduction" in separate segments. Character introduction comes first, for all four stories in a row. Then we get to plot introduction in the second chapter of each story in a row. In other words, this is the "character introduction" for my fem Ichigo.

A few other notes: This story is mangaverse and in first person. Please do give the first person a chance. It's actually my best point of view. Each fem story title is based off of a song, but this entire project title is also based off of a song. The project is entitled _Do It Like A Dude_ , from the song by Jessie J. Warning - if there even is a non explicit version, they'd have to edit out about half the song. With that said, definitely do check it out.

Without further ado, here's chapter one.

* * *

 **Part 2 of Do It Like A Dude**

 _ **She's a Genius**_

 _"My girl's ready to take control_

 _She just blows my mind_

 _She only listens to the radio_

 _To see who's alive, yeah_

 _She wakes up scared of getting old_

 _She don't feel no shame_

 _She knows so many pretty boys_

 _And they are all the same_

 _They said 'oh hey there girl tell me what do you do'_

 _She said 'um nothing but I'm damn sure it's more than you'_

 _That girl's a genius_

 _Whoa oh oh oh oh oh oh_

 _I think she's serious_

 _Whoa oh oh oh oh oh oh_

 _If what you know is who you are_

 _Then she's everything_

 _You don't need an education_

 _To know what class that you're in_

 _They said 'hey there girl tell me what do you do'_

 _She said 'nothing but I'm damn sure it's more than you'"_

 _ ** **-**** "She's a Genius" by Jet_

* * *

Chapter One

I bent over the fallen vase of ruined flowers in the city street. I'd come directly here after school. I still had to cook dinner for my family, so best to do this now. Get it over with. The lighting wouldn't be right for my little horror show, but hey, you couldn't have everything in life.

I sobbed into my hands, knelt over the broken flowers, as the skateboarders with their stench and their baggy clothes and their facial piercings crowded around me in concern. I was some weird approximation of a cute highschool girl, the details only right until you started looking at me more closely. Yes, I was a young, long-legged girl in a high school uniform, my orange hair pinned up in a clip behind my head. But I was tall and thin, bony and rangy with long, bony fingers. Even my face looked a bit skull like - my wide forehead was purposefully hidden by my orange bangs and my heart-shaped face had high, obvious cheekbones.

But all the skateboarders saw at first glance was some normal highschool girl.

"The offering," I sobbed into my hands, "the offering to my dead little sister has been ruined…" I figured maybe I was overdoing it a little. The little dead girl the offering was for wasn't even really my sister.

But the suckers bought it, hook, line, and sinker.

"Hey, baby, we're sorry, why don't we just -"

I could _feel_ the heat of the hand reaching out for my ass.

They were close enough now; their guard was down. I whirled around, almond-shaped amber brown eyes flashing, revealing I hadn't been crying at all. Fury painted my expression.

"Morons," I said, smirking.

I lashed out in a series of sharp karate punches and kicks, and the five were all on the ground moaning within seconds. I stood above them, glaring, my golden skin lit with the setting sun. Then I walked over to the one who'd tried to grab my ass, and I stepped hard on his hand, breaking it. He screamed out in pain.

"If you ever touch me again, I'm going to string you from a lamp post by your toes. Got it?" I snapped acerbically, sharp tongued. My pride had been pricked, and whether I liked admitting it to myself or not, that bothered me.

Then I loomed above them, and pictured hard. They gasped and screamed as the ghost of the little dead girl appeared to them behind me. I gave another vicious smirk. One of my mysterious abilities was to see the dead; another of my mysterious abilities was to be able to manipulate the nature of the dead according to my will.

I didn't know how I could do either one, and that bothered me because I prided myself on always being the most brilliant person in the room, the woman who knew her own mind. But the fact remained that both abilities were damn useful on occasion.

"Keep messing around in a dead person's resting place, knocking over offerings, and something nasty might happen to you, yeah?" I tilted my head, smiling eerily. The ghost of the dead girl floated behind me, pigtails framing her bloody, staring face with its empty, mangled eye socket.

"Fuck -! Shit -! We're sorry, we're sorry, don't hurt us!" They screamed, stumbled their bloody, bruised way to their feet, and fled.

I sighed after them. "Well. That happened," I said flatly. I turned to the ghost, who wasn't actually out to hurt anyone. Most of them weren't. "Sorry about that," I said. "The whole 'using the tragic horror angle to scare people' thing. Must get old."

"It's okay. I asked you to get rid of them for me when you brought my resting place the first offering," said the little girl cheerfully. She'd been stabbed to death by a mugger on this street last week. Her face was just one in the daily parade of horrors I saw around me in day to day life. Death was obvious in most people, I'd found. "I had to cooperate at least this much."

"I'll bring fresh flowers soon," I said, and then I frowned in a big sisterly way, hands on my hips. "Take good care of yourself. Don't let anyone disrespect you. Come to me if you ever need help again. And try to pass on soon, okay? Passing on can't be that bad. Everyone does it, and I've told you, we all come back just fine."

"O… okay." She nodded tentatively, smiling tremblingly. "Hopefully now I'll be able to rest in peace."

"Hurry on to heaven," I said, giving her shoulder an encouraging pat - another thing only I could do - and I left.

I walked through the Tokyo city streets back toward my home. Touting itself as the city of the future, Tokyo was all crowds and neon signs, neat square modern buildings and tall skyscrapers that were sheets of metallic glass. Cars and taxis jettisoned with each other, passing the trolleys, in the streets alongside me.

I was headed for Karakura, my district.

I was troubled as I walked those familiar roads. Cautious and ponderous, a side of me only familiar to those close to me. I could see ghosts - had been able to see them for as long as I could remember. I hid the ability from most people; it wasn't common and in fact only my sisters could do it besides me.

I didn't like the ability. It was disturbing, seeing people walking around looking sickly or with horrible wounds, as real to me as the living, passing me by in the streets - yet no one else could see those people. Only I could, and I had to keep it deep inside me. Then there were all the ghosts who came to me asking for help - and who could blame them, a girl who could both contact the dead clearly and do karate? - and while I never could turn away a face that needed my help, I found the pulls and restrictions on my time weirdly confining.

I always wanted more freedom than I had.

But I did know how death worked. When a person died, they remained behind on earth for a while before passing on. They spent some time in the afterlife and were then reincarnated as someone else. That was after an ideal life, or at least a moderately ideal life where no completely horrible actions were taken. But if someone was anyone from a tabloid reporter to a murderer or rapist - anyone who caused enormous pain to others - there were either two options for them. They became a ghost in purgatory here in the land of the living, or they went to Hell.

But ghosts, I noticed, also seemed to stay behind for another reason. They seemed to stay behind when they did not want to leave. Maybe they had something tying them to earth. Maybe, like that little girl, they were just scared.

But I knew someone _could_ push themselves up from the bad realms to the good realms again - if they let go of or repented whatever they had done to get there in the first place. So that was what I tried for with the ones I helped. In my mind, death was a self regulating system, and I'd seen it all and had it all figured out. I even took a certain amount of secret satisfaction from that.

I had my theories as to why I could see the dead. My father ran a small local hospital clinic from the bottom and front part of our house, the Kurosaki Clinic. Since Mom had died, his three daughters helped him with nursing duties. I'd seen people dying, I'd seen people die. Not everyone could be saved, but all patients trusted us to save them.

Maybe our ability to see the dead was our punishment for breaking that trust. Or maybe Karin was right, and I just had a guilt complex.

I walked around past the Kurosaki Clinic sign on the lower story, and instead went to the back door that led into the combined kitchen and living room. (Everything in the two-story Kurosaki house was compact.) I entered through the back door, slid off my shoes, threw down my bookbag, and announced, "I'm home! Dinner, dinner…"

I was the eldest sister, so being the mother, cooking and cleaning for the house, that was my job.

My Dad smiled a little from his office, the door open so he could talk from his work desk. "Off saving another ghost again? You know, if you keep doing it all, Aiko, you will eventually collapse from exhaustion."

"Lies," I said, getting out the materials to make dinner. "And I don't know what you're talking about."

"I checked and your grades are still in the top twenty of the entire freshman class -"

"Damn straight they are," I said fiercely. "Because I'm fucking brilliant."

"But you had another karate club meeting with Tatsuki today, right? And you have another sleepover with Orihime this weekend?"

"Yeah, and I'm not looking forward to it."

"Why?" said Karin, looking up curiously from the kitchen table.

"The ghost of her older brother likes to float around her place, gazing forlornly at her. I can't get him to pass on. It sort of detracts from the whole girly best friend sleepover vibe." I made a face. "At least Tatsuki will be there, too."

"The Terrible Threesome," said Dad wryly. "And then of course there's your not-boyfriend Chad."

"Dad, you know way too much about my personal life and it's kind of creepy," I declared as I cooked. Dad chuckled and shook his head, still bent over paperwork.

"Well, I have to connect with you _some_ way," he said. "You never tell me anything and it's not like I can see ghosts the way your sisters can."

"By the way, Onee-chan, can you put less spice into dinner this time?" Yuzu requested politely.

"Yeah, last time I could _feel_ a gaping portal to another dimension open up in my sinuses," said Karin dryly.

"Excuse me, do you guys do all the work around here? No? Then be quiet," I said. "Hey, Karin, how was the soccer match? Are your knees all skinned again?"

"... No," said Karin slowly.

"She's lying," said Yuzu secretively.

"Yuzu, you traitor!" Karin glared at her fraternal twin, also on the cusp of junior high. "We won, though," she added fiercely, as always in boyish clothes with short hair.

Karin and Yuzu were a study in opposites. Karin had black hair, black eyes, and a pale pointed face. Yuzu had a bob of warm brown hair, delicate features, and big liquid brown eyes. Mom had looked a lot like Yuzu, while Dad - though he was much bigger and broader, barrel chested like a boxer, with masculine features and stubble - looked a lot like Karin.

I was the weird one out. I didn't even know who I looked like.

"I'll dress up your knees later," I said. "Yuzu, is the dress for your new doll finished?" Yuzu wore lots of girly summer dresses. "And did you put more incense at Mom's altar?" I always felt a ping of guilt when I thought of Mom, but I'd learned to ignore it and go on about my business.

"Check and check!" said Yuzu cheerfully. "Oh, and… I need to talk to you about _him_ later." She raised her eyebrows meaningfully. Yuzu had her first crush but thought Dad would be embarrassing about it. I distinctly saw him look up curiously from his desk, raising an eyebrow.

I changed the subject quickly. "And I'm still teaching you those self defense moves."

" _Way_ more fun than your lecture about puberty," said Karin fervently. "I gotta admit, respect though." She raised a fist. "Not only can you beat the shit out of grown men, you had to figure out puberty with only Dad to help you."

"Hey! I'm a doctor; I was pretty good!" said Dad defensively.

"Ignoring all the talk of the wonders of femininity and youth, yes he was," I said. "Dinner!"

We all sat around the table. "Oh, by the way," said Yuzu matter of factly. "I can't see as well as you, no one can, but Karin and I are pretty sure we saw another ghost come through looking for you today. Older guy in a suit with glasses."

"Goddamnit," I sighed. "Probably died from overwork." I was grumbling. "Now I have to try to fix _that_."

"You have all these amazing powers and you don't even want them. It's tragic," Yuzu bemoaned. "I _know_ it's a lot of pressure, I get that -" she said, when I made to open my mouth heatedly. "I know you'd rather be free and carefree. But… it's still sad."

"Yes, it's the only true tragedy in Aiko's life," said Dad bluntly. I glared feebly at him as he ate with pretend innocence.

"It's still weird seeing you in that high school uniform," said Karin as she chewed, her eyes already watering from the food. "I'm still used to your dark punk girl clothes, or your junior high uniform."

"Eh. You'll get used to it," I said.

"You're so edgy these days," said Dad, sounding utterly confused.

"I am not!" I frowned, chewing. "Am I?"

"Aiko-nee, you write poetry, read classical literature, watch dark film, and like punk rock music," said Karin disbelievingly. "And I mean that in an awesome way; it is genuinely cool. You are like the very definition of edgy."

"You're also an awesome big sister," said Yuzu helpfully. "You even cut the hair of everybody in the household!"

"Some things still haven't changed, though," said Dad cheerfully. Everyone looked at him in surprise. "Some of the chocolate in the cupboard is gone again. I checked and Aiko's old hiding place is empty."

I slumped down in my chair, blushing. "... I plead the fifth," I muttered, as my sisters began laughing.

* * *

I went upstairs to my bedroom after a long day to do homework. I sighed, set my book bag down on the floor by my desk, looked up - and paused in surprise.

A black butterfly had just floated through my bedroom wall. "... Swallowtail," I classified vaguely as it fluttered past my head, utterly mystified.

Then my eyes widened. A tiny, pale, delicate girl with shoulder length black hair - in a black and white samurai type uniform and carrying an illegal katana sword - had just _floated_ through my bedroom wall after the butterfly.

Here was the weirdest part. She didn't look like a ghost.


	2. Moving Accounts Decision

Good news: I will continue to write fanfiction.

Bad news: I will not be doing it on FF.

I have decided FF is not a good environment for my mental state. I never liked it, but since coming back I have not been able to handle it. Ao3 is a much calmer place for my fanfic writing, I have decided after this hiatus, so from now on I will only be posting fics on Ao3. My apologies for the inconvenience.

My Ao3 username is Lyn_Laine, for the interested. I have posted several things, including rewrites of several recent fics that appeared on FF.

Please note: Part of the reason Ao3 is so awesome is that I can moderate every single comment you try to post on any of my given stories. Please also note that if you are anonymous, you will not be able to comment on my stories at all. The only thing you can do, in fact, is give kudos. You can try to reach me through my old FF account, I suppose, but I will not be reading reviews and messages from it anymore.

I know lots of people were really upset by my recent announcements, so I thought I'd put this notice up here for those people. Thank you, and thank you for reading my FF stories.

Signing off,

Eilwynn


End file.
